Our Broken Courts Conference

The Ethics of Child Custody Evaluations as a Business
John Caccavale, Ph.D.

Child custody evaluations, while initially designed to provide family court judges with unbiased information and data with respect to custody related issues, has become a major profit center for mental health evaluators. Under the guise of “unbiased” assessment, there appears to be a significant departure from real ethical practice. Psychological and psychiatric evaluators have become part of an expansive business enterprise where the interests of children many times is secondary to “How much can I get for this eval?”

This presentation will focus on how professional ethics have become subservient to business interests and some possible solutions to a major contributor to the broken family court system.

Understanding, Interpreting, and Addressing the Unbelievable in Men’s Character and Behavior Eli Newberger, M.D.

The state of trauma-informed psychotherapy is sufficiently advanced that we now know how to help children to heal from what happened to them. This presentation will focus on an effective phase model of trauma-informed treatment, including current research on the model, as well as on the leading trauma resolution procedures for children. Special attention will be given to circumstances peculiar to family court that can interfere with, or support, the child’s treatment and recovery.

Legal Rights for Children in Family Court.
The Intersection of Forensic Opinion & Therapist Testimony in Custody Cases
Toby Kleinman, J.D.